Suffolk Plein Air 2023 Juror, Karen Kinser, will review three pieces of artwork created by each Juried Plein Air Artist, following the 3 days of painting around Suffolk's Downtown, Farmland and Waterways.
CASH AWARDS will be given for the Best In Show, $3,000, 2nd Place, $1,000, along with 3rd Place, $500. Additionally, there are $100 awards given for plein air paintings capturing: BEST Historic, BEST City, BEST Waterfront, BEST Rural, and BEST Farmland.
The Suffolk Plein Air Festival, held September 5 – 9, was an amazing success for Suffolk, Virginia and creatively impactful for all of Coastal Virginia. This year’s festival featured 43 professional plein air artists from all over Virginia, across the United States, and as far away as the Netherlands. For five days the artists traveled throughout Suffolk finding art-inspiring waterways, rural settings, historic landmarks, and vibrant downtown. The result, over 120 original pieces of artwork available for sale in the Wet Paint Sale and Soiree held on Friday, September 8 at the Suffolk Art Gallery.
WET PAINT SALE & SOIREE This year’s Suffolk Plein Air Festival Wet Paint award winners were selected and announced by Juror Karen Kinser. First-Place award went to Henrico, VA artist Coakley Brown for her oil painting “Sunrise Delivery”. Painted from the Main Street railroad overpass, it depicts a train making its way through downtown.
Second-Place was awarded to Freeman Dodsworth, from Port Republic, MD, for two of his oil paintings “Hush” and “Too Hot to Fish”. The juror shared it was too hard to choose between his paintings, so she gave the award for both. Third-Place honors were given to Fen Rascoe from Windsor, NC, for his oil painting “Look Both Ways” which was painted at the corner of Main & Market Streets.
In addition, Suffolk Plein Air Festival presented Wet Paint awards in several categories: Best Waterfront: Doug Clark, “Stories on Water”, Oil (Virginia Beach, VA) Best Historic: Brian Murphy, “Johnson & Sons Seafood”, Oil (Newport News, VA) Best Farmland: Pearl Horng, “Morning Light at Bosselman Farm (Richmond, VA) Best Rural: Karen Lee Crenshaw, Red Mill, Blue Pond, Oil (Jacksonville, NC) Best Cityscape: Eric Thingstad, “East Washington St”, (Chesapeake, VA)
SPAF Wet Paint Honorable Mention awards were given to: Lori Cusick, “Summer Twilight”, Oil (Dallas TX) Dimitris Voyiazoglou, “Early Breakfast”, Acrylic (The Netherlands) Ellen Sinclair, “Morning Light”, Oil (Virginia Beach, VA) Jeffrey Baumgartner, “Historic St. Lukes Church”, Oil (Michigan City, ID) Thomas Bradshaw, “Truitt Garden Party”, Oil (Blackstone, VA) Rhonda Ford, “Morning at Mattanock”, Oil (Easton, MD)
“PAINT the TASTE” On Saturday, the Suffolk Plein Air Festival continued with “Paint the Taste” held during Taste of Suffolk Downtown Street Festival. This ‘quick draw’ event encourages artists of all abilities to try their hand at painting ‘en plein air’, painting outdoors. In all, 41 adult and youth artists brought their paint, brushes, and creativity to paint for 120 minutes, within the Taste of Suffolk boundaries.
After two hours, Karen Kinser judged the resulting works of art and awards were presented. ADULT “Paint the Taste” Award winners: First Place was awarded to Jim Rehak for “Sugar Mama’s” (Seaford, DE) Second Place went to Orit Reuben for “Yellow Man” (Orlando, FL) Third Place honors were to Melanie Landrith, “Storm Washed Street” (Media, PA)